Meet The Team

Dr Deborah Webb B.Vet.Med, M.A.C.V.Sc.

Deborah was brought up in picturesque (and rainy!) Cornwall in the UK. She lived on acreage and bred dogs and goats. The family kept donkeys, calves, ducks and chickens. A Veterinarian was all she ever wanted to become from a very early age and knew that animals and their welfare was her absolute passion (she used to give all her pocket money to the RSPCA and do loads of fundraising).

Deborah qualified from the Royal Veterinary College, London and worked as a large and small animal veterinarian in England for a few years before emigrating to Australia and working in purely small animal practice.

Deborah established ‘Veterinary Happiness’ in 1998, with a vision to provide the most empathic, caring, kind and clinically excellent clinic for her patients and their owners. In 1998 she completed her ‘Membership of the Australian College of Veterinary Scientists’ qualification in Small Animal Medicine, which is an advanced Post Graduate Qualification, indicating a high level of understanding and knowledge in ‘the diagnosis and treatment of illness’, in dogs and cats. Deborah maintains a commitment to continually updating her clinical knowledge.

She has one special Burmese boy called ‘Merlot’.

Dr Deborah is available for consultation on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Dr Lara Brits BVSc (Hons)

Having grown up in the Bayside, Lara started veterinary practice locally in 2003 before heading over to the UK to satisfy the travel itch. She worked as a veterinary locum for a year, managed a veterinary practice for 3 years, and managed to squeeze in adventures throughout Europe, Asia and Africa. After heading back to Australia to get married, she managed a successful practice locally for several years, then settled into part time practice when her children arrived.

Lara is passionate about building strong ongoing relationships with clients and particularly enjoys surgery, senior and cardiac medicine cases.

Dr Lara would love to meet you and your pets and is available for consultation on Friday mornings and some Saturdays

Dr Erin Adkins DVM

Erin graduated veterinary school from the University of California, Davis in 2009, after which she completed a rigorous one year internship in small animal medicine at a large speciality hospital. Prior to moving to Brisbane and joining Veterinary Happiness in 2016, she worked in both emergency and general practice for 6 years in the San Francisco area. When not at the clinic, Erin spends her time with her husband, young son, and dog exploring all that Australia has to offer. Erin’s special interests include internal medicine, feline medicine, soft tissue surgery, and emergency/critical care, but her favourite part about the job is forming long lasting relationships with her clients and patients.

Dr Erin is available for consultations on Fridays, some Mondays and other odd days throughout the week.

Dr Rebecca Knight BVSc (Hons)

Rebecca graduated from the University of Queensland in 2004 and spent four years working as a small animal veterinarian in her home town of Adelaide in a large clinic with a strong feline focus. She moved back to Brisbane to head back to university, undertaking an internship with the University of Queensland’s Small Animal Teaching Hospital. Since then she has worked locally in small animal general practice and first became a member of the Veterinary Happiness team in 2010.

Over the years Rebecca has developed a passion for feline medicine and especially feline behaviour.

When not working, she is kept busy with her three beautiful cats, her flock of chickens and her three children.

Dr Rebecca is available for consultation on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Niki, Head Nurse

Niki has been part of the Veterinary Happiness team since October 2009. She has been an avid cat lover since childhood, adopting her first feline friend at the age of 11. Since then she has welcomed many cats into her home, most a little down on their luck and needing extra special attention.

Her first job was nursing at a cat specialist clinic and remained with them for the next 9 years until deciding to go abroad to the UK and get some experience with other animals.

Her current furry family members are ‘Popeye’ a disabled cat that has a specially designed cart, ‘Josie’ a cheeky Jack Russel x Yorkie and a few other cats that Niki has opened her home too over the years.

Niki has a special interest in the care and wellbeing of felines and is the clinics “Cat Advocate”.

Chelsie, Veterinary Nurse

Chelsie joined our Veterinary Happiness family in 2016. Chelsie is a qualified Veterinary Nurse who started her nursing career in 2012 after completing Equine Science at the University of Queensland. After working with large animals for many years she decided to broaden her knowledge of animals and completed her Certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing.

Chelsie has a Golden Retriever named Scout who is full of personality and loves going to the beach.

Chelsie has a special interest in surgical nursing and always makes sure our patients are happy and comfortable while away from their homes.

Courtney, Veterinary Nurse

Courtney has just recently joined the Veterinary Happiness team in January 2018, she is a qualified veterinary nurse and new to the industry completing her qualification at Tafe Brisbane in 2017. She has loved animals since she first got a puppy at the age of 5, which was a Kelpie cross Cattle dog.

Courtney’s other passion besides animals is photography, she studied photography for 2 years completing a Diploma in Photo Imaging in 2014.

She now has a 2 year old King Charles Cavalier called Kallie who loves life and everything in it and she also has a 3 year old Louisiana Catahoula Leopard Dog named Luna who is in love with eating, cuddling, playing and swimming!